Motorola Phone Shipments Slip as Loss Widens

Motorola Mobility reported a net loss for the first quarter of 2012 that widened compared to a quarter ago, and the number of mobile devices the company sold shrank.

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Motorola Mobility reported a net loss for the first quarter of 2012 that widened compared to a quarter ago, and the number of mobile devices the company sold shrank.

Motorola reported a net loss of $86 million on revenue of $3.1 billion for the quarter, with an operating loss of $98 million. Revenue grew 2 percent compared to a year ago, when Motorola lost $81 million.

The one bright spot? Smartphone sales, which grew by 24 percent to 5.1 million. However, the number of total mobile devices that Motorola sold dropped by 4.3 percent from a year ago to 8.9 million units. Motorola did not disclose the number of tablets it sold.

Motorola's loss casts a pall over the company's acquisition by Google, which has been approved by regulatory agencies but has yet to formally close. That timetable is now set for the middle of 2012, Motorola executives said. Because of the pending acquisition, Motorola did not hold a conference call.

Meanwhile, China is the most recent country to ask for more information about the deal, as well as a district court overseeing patent litigation between Apple and Motorola. "Motorola Mobility and Google continue to work closely with the authorities in China for approval on the acquisition," Motorola said in a statement.

Possibly, that's because Motorola's poor showing may mean the deal does not pose a threat to competition. Motorola did not crack the top five in an IDC report of the top smartphone manufacturers on Tuesday. Motorola trailed Samsung, Apple, Nokia, RIM, and HTC.

Sanjay Jha, the chief executive of Motorola, took a positive view.

"The introduction of RAZR MAXX marked another successful addition to the Motorola product family and contributed to our growth in smartphones," Jha said in a statement. "Our Home business delivered another solid quarter highlighted by improvement in year-over-year profitability. We continue to work closely with Google to complete the proposed merger during the first half of the year."

Motorola's Mobile Devices segment lost $121 million for the quarter, versus a loss of $89 million last year. Revenues were $2.2 billion, up 3 percent.

Motorola's Home segment, however, reported operating profits. The segment reported operating earnings of $68 million on revenue of $884 million, down 2 percent year-over-year. Earnings were $53 million last year.

Mark Hachman Mark joined ExtremeTech in 2001 as the news editor, after rival CMP/United Media decided at the time that online news did not make sense in the new millennium.
Mark stumbled into his career after discovering that writing the great American novel did not pay a monthly salary, and that his other possible career choice, physics, required a degree of mathematical prowess that he sorely lacked.
Mark talked his way into a freelance assignment at CMP’s Electronic Buyers’ News, in 1995, where he wrote the...
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